Winchester’s Slug and Lettuce Hosts Bank Holiday Charity Fundraiser

The Slug and Lettuce in Winchester are putting the finishing touches to plans to host a weekend dedicated to raising funds for charity which starts on Friday 24th May.

The team will be raising money for two charities; COCO (Comrades of Children Overseas), an international children’s charity founded by former Olympian, Steve Cram and Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

The fundraising efforts for CRY are particularly poignant for Kyle Allen, assistant manager of the Slug and Lettuce who has organised the weekend, as he is hosting the night in memory of his friend and local young man, Alex Watley who passed away at 23 years of age.

Speaking about the charity weekend, Kyle said: “We’ve wanted to host a charity event for some time and it made sense to hold it over the Bank Holiday weekend when we’re usually quite busy.

“On Friday, we’ll start raising funds for COCO and we’ve organised for a live band called Lazy Beach Duo to entertain our guests, along with our resident DJ. We’ll be asking our customers to donate their £2 entry fee to the charity and we’ll also be giving away a £50 food and drink tab. Upon entry, each customer will be given a raffle ticket and the person with the ticket whose number corresponds with the ticket that we draw, wins the tab.

“On Sunday 26th May, we’ll be raising money for CRY and we really hope that with the help of our customers we can raise a significant amount for the charity. Alex was a keen rugby player so we hope that the local rugby teams in the area will pop into the Slug and Lettuce and take part in the activity we’ve organised – both Winchester and Alresford rugby clubs have said that they’ll support the event in whatever way they can by promoting it amongst their players.

Again, we’ll be asking customers to donate their £2 entry fee into the charity collection pots and giving away a £50 bar tab to a customer. We’ve also organised a silent auction whereby customers can bid on a number of prizes in sealed envelopes including prizes worth up to £50 and money off vouchers for food and drink at the Slug and Lettuce. All proceeds will go to CRY

“Collection boxes and pots will be dotted around the Slug and Lettuce over the weekend so we’ll be encouraging customers to drop in any loose change after they’ve bought a round. We’re hoping that the weekend will not only raise money for two very worthy causes but at the same time, raise awareness of the fantastic work that they both do and the people that they help.”